Metro line shifting to the North Shore

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Government rail planners have been forced to rethink the vital
new rail line through Sydney's CBD, moving it further east than was
originally planned.

A report obtained by the Herald shows a link through the
centre of the city would transport more workers than earlier
options.

The document warns that with 12,520 more jobs expected to be
created in the "central spine" of the city by 2021, a line under
the western fringes of the CBD would be grossly under-used and
would not ease congestion.

The Government had been investigating a new line under Sussex or
Kent streets, with a new CityWest station near Chinatown and a
harbour crossing that would need to be "strapped on" to the Harbour
Bridge.

But the report says that with more than 116,000 workers to be
located in the centre of the city in 2021 and only 49,125 around
Darling Harbour, the Government's once preferred rail option,
MetroWest, was not feasible.

Since the report was completed, the Government has declared that
former port land at East Darling Harbour will be converted into a
major office development surrounded by apartments and a new city
park.

But the report says a line under the central spine of the CBD
that would then tunnel under Sydney Harbour and join the network at
St Leonards was the best option to ease worsening congestion on the
CityRail network.

Known as MetroPitt, this line would include three new city
stations which would ease Town Hall because less commuters would
use that station to change trains for the North Shore. The line
would improve travel times between North Sydney and the CBD,
provide a short cut from the eastern suburbs to North Sydney and
directly link the south-west and north-west sectors to the
city.

Deeper tunnelling would be needed for MetroPitt's route and its
stations, so there would be much less interference with the
basements of existing buildings and utilities services, unlike the
MetroWest option.

It would be a distinct line, complementing the Government's $1
billion project to untangle CityRail's lines and providing scope
for later extensions to the north-west and south-west.

The report says the line could be needed as early as 2010, with
investigations pointing to a "potentially serious lack of capacity
in the metropolitan network", especially in the corridor between
Chatswood/St Leonards in the north and
Redfern/Eveleigh/Erskineville in the south".

A former co-ordinator general of rail, Ron Christie, warned the
Government in 2001 of the "seriousness of the looming problem of
severe capacity constraints on the metropolitan rail network".

The report quotes Mr Christie's long-term plan for rail, in
which he said it was essential that the route "use the unused
platforms 26 and 27 at Central Station rather than more Haymarket
locations".

Mr Christie's plan also said it was vital to have at least two
stations in the CBD, one near Park Street to relieve worsening
congestion at Town Hall, and another further north, preferably near
Martin Place.

"The system is rapidly approaching gridlock. This is already
manifest in the extreme day-to-day sensitivity of CityRail services
to even the most minor of disruptive incidents," he wrote.